Fresh welcomes standardised packaging in Australia
NORTH East health programme Fresh is welcoming new laws in Australia to make cigarettes less attractive to children and young people through standardised, plain tobacco packaging from December 1.
Out will go colourful, glossy packs and in will come drab grey-green boxes featuring larger, harder-hitting picture warnings – with pictures of damaged lungs and hearts, gangrenous feet and cancerous tumours.
The law also covers the sticks inside – ending the type of colourful, slim fashion cigarettes promoted at young women which have drawn condemnation from North East doctors and MPs.
Ailsa Rutter, director of Fresh, said: “This is a vital step in Australia to make tobacco less attractive to their children and young people and we would like to see this happen in the UK, where most smokers start as children.
“The new packs are designed to have the lowest appeal – especially to non-smokers and children, and clearly show the death and disease smoking causes.
“Young people are a key target market for tobacco corporations, which spend millions on designing glitzy brands to suggest smoking is cool and glamorous. There is massive public support to reduce tobacco promotion and stop kids starting, and this is what tobacco packaging could look like here within a few years.”
Tobacco companies have tried unsuccessfully to challenge these new laws, with large scale campaigns and legal challenges being eventually overturned by the Australian High Court.
The only branding on the new Australian packs will be the product name in a standard font and colour, while the pack itself will also be standard. All packs will have a quitline number and web address on.
Standardised tobacco packaging proposals in the UK have also received strong public support in the North East, with every local authority and Primary Care Organisation signing up in support of the measure during the Government’s public consultation in the summer.
A YouGov poll found that 66 per cent of North East adults said they would support the sale of tobacco in standardised packaging, with only 11 per cent opposing.
Peer reviewed studies from around the world show that standardised tobacco packs are less appealing, make health warnings more effective and reduce the ability of packaging to mislead consumers about the harms of smoking, i.e. that one brand is less harmful than the other.
A major new report from Cancer Research UK* also found that there is no evidence that replacing current packs with standardised packaging will increase the illicit trade.